Terrific Brutal Legend demo brings metal to the masses

Tim Schafer's Brutal Legend shows that the man still has the ability to write …

Eddie Riggs, the hero of Brutal Legend, smokes. Outside of Mad Men, you rarely see that these days. Eddie's large, unshaved, and looks like he might smell a little funky. The best roadie in the business, he's stuck working for a band that passes for metal these days—wait until you hear his reaction to a turntable being used in concert—but he knows he's out of his time. He wishes for something better, something harder, something... more brutal.

The game gives you an option in the first cinematic to either hear the F-word or to have it bleeped. One answer is "metal," while the other one is "Fallout Boy." You also have the ability to turn off the gore, as the game notes that things get bloody "whenever it is necessary for the plot, historical accuracy, or to look awesome." There is only one correct answer here, and the bodies quickly pile up. This is a game about metal, however, so of course death is only a door. Where does that door go?

The power of rock is real

The demo for Brutal Legend may seem short at first, but after playing it a few times, we can say that it does everything a demo needs to do. It shows off the game's combat system. It lets you try the vehicle mode. The game's humor and love of all things metal is proven. This is a game that's laugh out loud funny, and Jack Black's performance as the voice of Eddie Riggs is actually much more nuanced than one would expect. Brutal Legend thrives on character, and you'll meet a few in your short time with the game.

But first, battle. When you're transported into the mythical world of metal, you find an axe that allows you to slice and dice the gothic baddies in your path. Very quickly you're also given your old electric guitar, and in this plane of existence power chords do more than damage your ear drums, and solos do more than give you a reason to leave the arena for another watery beer. By mixing up guitar and axe attacks you can set up a combo or two, and once you meet the game's femme fatale character—who is one of the more attractive video game vixens of recent memory—you can tag-team the baddies.

The combat system works well, with the ability to lock onto a single enemy or simply swing your axe around to hit multiple targets. You'll also create a hot-rod by... well, I'll leave that for you to figure out. It involves playing a solo. "It looks like it's working already," Riggs says as your busty friend slides into your new means of conveyance.

The car does not handle like something out of Halo or Mass Effect. Can I get a hallelujah?

There is much you won't see

The game features an open world design for you to explore between missions, although you won't get a taste of that in the demo. You don't meet the majority of the characters in the demo, either. The real-time strategy multiplayer also isn't hinted at. The demo simply proves that the game's basic mechanics work while not giving away the majority of what the game has to offer.

It's a love letter to the world of metal music, and the soundtrack features 108 metal songs. This is a game that sounds as good as it looks, although you will notice some heinous drops in frame rate, something we hope the developers fix before release.

The demo is over way too quickly, but it proves that the game will be more than a series of jokes and voice-overs. For now, the demo is an exclusive item that GameStop is giving away with preorders, but on October 1 anyone will be able to give it a download. We hope you do; even this tiny taste is a pleasant surprise.

If you wore a leather jacket in High School, if you know all the words to "Metal on Metal" by Anvil, if you've ever spray-painted Eddie on the side of a van, if you've ever snuck out of shop class to smoke cheap weed, you're going to love everything about this game. This isn't just hype, and it's not a gimmick. The wait for the full Brutal Legend suddenly became much longer.

I think the problem with Psychonauts was that being unique is not enough. If you do not couple it with a world people can grasp, a hero people can relate to and a general art style that is not only original but also accessible. Your game will crash and burn.

In short games are for fun and recreation not art.

Which may be sad for those who would like it to be different but I think this is it. The good thing about brutal legend is that the world may be surreal but the heavy metal concept is known and appreciated by many gamers and the main character and the humor in the trailers speak to a lot of people. It will do better than Psychonauts no doubt.

I think the problem with Psychonauts was that being unique is not enough. If you do not couple it with a world people can grasp, a hero people can relate to and a general art style that is not only original but also accessible. Your game will crash and burn.

In short some games are for fun and recreation not art.

Which may be sad for those who would like it to be different but I think this is it. The good thing about brutal legend is that the world may be surreal but the heavy metal concept is known and appreciated by many gamers and the main character and the humor in the trailers speak to a lot of people. It will do better than Psychonauts no doubt.

Boy as time goes on, you are going to have real issues getting games... PC gaming is dying with the exceptions of MMO's.

That doesn't make it any less acceptable. Most games are developed for multiple platforms these days. It's not like the hardware architecture of PCs is hard to code for anyway. It's much simpler than that of the ps2 or ps3. There is no real reason not to put in the small amount of extra effort for a PC port.

Boy as time goes on, you are going to have real issues getting games... PC gaming is dying with the exceptions of MMO's.

People have been saying this for a fucking decade now and it still isn't true. Especially given that the price to build a capable gaming rig keeps going down. If the fucking PS3 could struggle on from it's launch until today by selling at a pricepoint that was 20 bucks short of the cost of a gaming PC, I think it's safe to say PC gaming won't be a problem either.

Also, when doing previews like this, could we perhaps get an indication as to what systems the demo/eventual game is available for?

"Piracy, and excessive bitching about DRM'd PC products."Which is solved in about 2 seconds by publishing through Steam or Impulse.

People like to look at tiny sections of a huge market and make stupid sweeping statements. Yes some genres have died out, yes cost to produce a "big budget" title are going up.Yet somehow we have entire marketplaces that do amazing sales selling little garage developed games at the 9.99-19.99 pricepoint.

Originally posted by chronomitch:There is no real reason not to put in the small amount of extra effort for a PC port.

There is a real reason: Piracy, and the excessive bitching about DRM'd PC products.

With so many games out this fall, why pay full price for the console version when you can download it for free?

This comment was edited by JabberWockey on September 21, 2009 15:40

I know a lot of folks with modded Wiis and 360s, that have never purchased a game out of their libraries of dozens (and in one case, hundreds) of titles.

Sure, it may be marginally easier to do it on a PC, but there are also fewer games and gamers.

It's a catch-22...publishers are dicks that continue to water down and implant trojans and viruses in their software to deter customers from easily using the software they purchased...so consumers just say "fuck it" and pirate, where we can install and backup with no problems.

Personally, about 90% of my game purchases these days go to indie devs and small shops, while limiting big pub purchases as much as possible. Haven't bought an EA game in 7 years! But I gladly coughed up $15 for Braid, even when I had an opportunity to get it on Steam for $5...why? To send a message that I'm willing to support creative, independent, artistic, fun, and DRM-free gaming that doesn't rely on marketing hype and DLC robbery.

As much as I wish every game came to PC just to provide me with options, I do have a PS3 and a 360 in addition to my gaming rig, and I think for EA's own good it may be in their best interest to stay out of the PC arena. Pretty much every time they do they take a perfectly good game and then ruin it with DRM. I don't think getting them to stop with the DRM is going to happen so the next best thing is for them to just stop making PC games. They may get a few gripes about that, but not nearly as many as they will get if the cram it full of all sorts of DRM.

As painful as it is this is a better way to prevent PC game piracy than DRM. I would imagine it is kind of hard to crack a game that does not exist for a given platform.

I am not much of a DRM fan, I think it should go away as all it does is punish paying customers, I suppose under the circumstances this is the best option they have to prevent piracy without restrictive DRM.

Originally posted by giggity:I know a lot of folks with modded Wiis and 360s, that have never purchased a game out of their libraries of dozens (and in one case, hundreds) of titles.

Sure, it may be marginally easier to do it on a PC,

Marginally? Surely you jest. The % of PC gamers that pirate is far far greater than the % of console gamers [who pirate].

Link to back you up?

Does this really need to be cited? It's common knowledge that it's easier to pirate PC games vs console games, and game devs have made comments about the high rate of piracy of thier PC releases. I've seen estimates from 20-90%!. While I don't think those numbers are completely reliable, it's worth noting that you never hear of such piracy rates with console games.

Just think about it - when pirating a PC game, most times you just install as normal and copy over a cracked .exe.... To pirate console games, most times you have to crack open the box and install a modchip.. that, or go through a complicated process to soft-mod...

Originally posted by giggity:I know a lot of folks with modded Wiis and 360s, that have never purchased a game out of their libraries of dozens (and in one case, hundreds) of titles.

Sure, it may be marginally easier to do it on a PC,

Marginally? Surely you jest. The % of PC gamers that pirate is far far greater than the % of console gamers [who pirate].

Link to back you up?

Does this really need to be cited? It's common knowledge that it's easier to pirate PC games vs console games, and game devs have made comments about the high rate of piracy of thier PC releases. I've seen estimates from 20-90%!. While I don't think those numbers are completely reliable, it's worth noting that you never hear of such piracy rates with console games.

Just think about it - when pirating a PC game, most times you just install as normal and copy over a cracked .exe.... To pirate console games, most times you have to crack open the box and install a modchip.. that, or go through a complicated process to soft-mod...